The dried fish had a strong smell, fishy yet savory and salty, with a distinctive aroma. Passersby stopped in unison, sniffed, then followed the scent to its source, only to discover a sack of salted dried fish.
Some who weren't interested craned their necks for a look and walked straight on, while others reached in and rummaged through it without any hesitation.
Ye Yaodong frowned. Were these people's hands even clean, rummaging around like that?
He had only intended to sit on the ground for a while, so he hadn't bothered tying the sack shut. He would be getting up and putting it away again soon anyway.
He had also wondered whether he could draw a few people over and sell another few jin to lighten the load, saving himself from carrying so much all the way home. Every jin less helped, and the station had a huge flow of people.
Just as he was about to tell them not to touch if they weren't buying, someone spoke up.
"Hey, is this dried fish yours? Is it for sale? Did you dry it yourselves?"
"How much is it?"
"Was the fish fresh?"
"Yes, we dried it ourselves, and we caught all the fish out at sea ourselves too. They were all killed fresh, absolutely fresh. Just smell them and you'll know. Fish that isn't fresh smells different. It wouldn't have this savory smell."
"Dried toadfish is forty-five fen a jin, and mixed dried fish is forty fen. Ten jin of these fish only yields one or two jin dried. Even fresh, they cost five fen a jin wholesale and seven or eight fen retail. I'm not making any money on these at all. They're only this cheap because we caught the fish ourselves, without going through several middlemen."
Seeing people